During harvesting, the real-time monitoring and determination of crop yields is often desirable to improve harvesting operations and to provide pertinent information (e.g., crop performance) about the crop being harvested. For example, such information can be used to determine high and low performance areas, as well as for comparison purposes to compare the yield of a variety of seed types. The yield monitor for grain measures and records information such as grain flow, grain moisture, area covered, and location. Based on the measured yield, other properties may be determined such as moisture and grain flow.
Some conventional approaches have employed the use of translational (i.e., non-rotational and linear translation) sensor devices for measuring yields. Translational sensor devices, however, pose significant disadvantages such as decreased sensor resolution, increased measurement errors, and limited sensing ranges, thereby resulting in imprecise yield measurements that can be costly. Other conventional approaches have employed fill level sensors that determines mass flow based on a measured change in a dielectric constant of a parallel plate capacitor. Drawbacks to such conventional approaches include low sensor resolution and decreased sensing accuracy. As such, there is a need in the art for an improved sensor system that overcomes the limitations of the conventional approaches.